Twenty-Six Seconds

On November 22, 1963, Abraham Zapruder left his office hoping for a glimpse of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade as it passed by Dealey Plaza. A Russian Jewish immigrant who wholeheartedly loved his home in America, Abe thrilled at the chance to see the young president in person--and perhaps to bring back a home movie of this once-in-a-lifetime moment for his family.

The twenty-six seconds of Abraham Zapruder's footage depicting the JFK assassination is now iconic, forever embedded in American culture and identity. The first major instance of citizen journalism, this amateur film forced Abraham Zapruder to face unprecedented dilemmas: How to handle his unexpected ownership of a vitally important yet unspeakably terrible piece of American history? How to aid the U.S. government and, at the same time, fend off the swarm of reporters grasping to purchase the film? How to make the best decisions to ensure the film was safeguarded--but never exploited?

Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, uses previously sealed archival sources, her family's personal records, and interviews to delve into the film's fraught history--its chance beginning, the frantic moments and crucial decisions following the assassination, its controversial ownership by LIFE Magazine, its use in the major assassination investigations, the persistent battles over control of the images, and its impact on American art, film, and literature. Zapruder traces issues of ownership, privacy, and ethics through the decades, as the film sparked debates on the public representation of violence, the media's role in disseminating information, and how personal property becomes public legacy.

Throughout this complex history, Zapruder traces the intertwined lives of the film and her family, fusing the private and public to create a complete narrative of the Zapruder film for the first time. She shows how twenty-six seconds of footage changed her family and, at the same time, challenged American society, media, and culture, raising new questions that came to define our age.

“"Zapruder offers a unique perspective."-- New York Post”

"[A] well-written exploration of conspiracy, propriety, copyright, and public good versus private gain...reaffirming [the film's] position as a true relic, one of the few in a secular world."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A fascinating and cautionary tale."--Wall Street Journal
"A fascinating history."--Men's Journal
"A first-rate work of biography and history, addressing the film and the family in all their complexity and character...absorbing, deeply researched."--USA Today
"A moving and enlightening account of the famous film."--Joyce Carol Oates, The Washington Post
"A wholly unique family memoir and a fascinating monograph about one of the most consequential artifacts in recorded history...So much has been written and said about the Kennedy assassination that a reader might wonder what is left to be said. In the pages of TWENTY-SIX SECONDS, Alexandra Zapruder says it."--Jewish Journal
"Adds a fresh narrative to an old tragedy."--People
"An intriguing history of one of the most significant home movies ever recorded."--Kirkus Reviews
"Connects the complex dots between [the author's] grandfather's chance footage of the attack (he was an amateur camera buff catching the president's motorcade) and the film's controversial and lasting impact on America's psyche, politics, culture, and laws-as well as the ways it strengthened and hurt the Zapruders over the next 50 years."--Elle.com
"Enlightening...an intelligent blend of memoir and cultural criticism that breaks fresh ground in the crowded field of JFK assassination studies."--San Francisco Chronicle
"Exhaustively researched."--Bookreporter
"It is rare to find a book like TWENTY-SIX SECONDS that uncovers new informationa bout one of the most tragic events in American history...an intelligent examination of the changing media landscape, sudden notoriety, and its aftermath."--Washington Times
"Making use of family and government archives, interviews, and her own memory, Alexandra offers a supple, tender portrait of a family lashed to history."--Boston Globe
"Riveting...offers up a complex and highly entertaining story of an assassination, a reel of film, and a Texas-based clan, which also draws in Dan Rather, Life magazine, Geraldo Rivera, the Warren Commission, a pile of money, and a whole lot more."--The National Book Review
"Riveting."--The Dallas Morning News
"The fifty year saga of the most important witness to the JFK assassination-a home movie shot by Abraham Zapruder-is a high-stakes morality tale, suspenseful, thought-provoking, and at times nasty. Zapruder's embattled descendants defend their claim to the film, while researchers, conspiracy theorists, disapproving editorial writers and the federal government swirl around them, and millions of dollars hang in the balance."--John Berendt, New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
"The odyssey of America's most famous amateur footage is recounted with skill and sensitivity....Alexandra is a fine storyteller... the story never lags...Alexandra Zapruder has written a book which transcends the film and the tragedy in Dallas."--Washington Independent Review of Books
"Zapruder evokes the tension and horror of the assassination. Scrupulous facts are woven into an intensely personal, sometimes painful, family history....TWENTY-SIX SECONDS is an important contribution to our understanding of history on a grand scale, and to the personal history of a private family reluctantly thrust into history's spotlight."--Lone Star Literary Life
"Zapruder is a gifted writer and storyteller who delicately unravels a minor mystery few people know or care about, but that she makes human, complex and quite interesting."--New York Times Book Review
"Zapruder offers a unique perspective."--New York Post

Alexandra Zapruder began her career on the founding staff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Smith College, she later earned her Master's Degree in Education at Harvard University. She is the author of Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust, which won the National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category. She also served as the guest curator for an exhibition of original diaries at Holocaust Museum Houston. She wrote and co-produced I'm Still Here, a documentary film for young audiences based onSalvaged Pages, which was awarded the Jewish Image Award for Best Television Special by the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and was nominated for two Emmy awards. Alexandra has traveled around the country and spoken to thousands of teachers, students, and others about her work.

On November 22, 1963, Abraham Zapruder left his office hoping for a glimpse of President John F. Kennedy's motorcade as it passed by Dealey Plaza. A Russian Jewish immigrant who wholeheartedly loved his home in America, Abe thrilled at the chance to see the young president in person--and perhaps to bring back a home movie of this once-in-a-lifetime moment for his family. The twenty-six seconds of Abraham Zapruder's footage depicting the JFK assassination is now iconic, forever embedded in American culture and identity. The first major instance of citizen journalism, this amateur film forced Abraham Zapruder to face unprecedented dilemmas: How to handle his unexpected ownership of a vitally important yet unspeakably terrible piece of American history? How to aid the U.S. government and, at the same time, fend off the swarm of reporters grasping to purchase the film? How to make the best decisions to ensure the film was safeguarded--but never exploited? Now Abraham's granddaughter, Alexandra Zapruder, uses previously sealed archival sources, her family's personal records, and interviews to delve into the film's fraught history--its chance beginning, the frantic moments and crucial decisions following the assassination, its controversial ownership by LIFE Magazine, its use in the major assassination investigations, the persistent battles over control of the images, and its impact on American art, film, and literature. Zapruder traces issues of ownership, privacy, and ethics through the decades, as the film sparked debates on the public representation of violence, the media's role in disseminating information, and how personal property becomes public legacy. Throughout this complex history, Zapruder traces the intertwined lives of the film and her family, fusing the private and public to create a complete narrative of the Zapruder film for the first time. She shows how twenty-six seconds of footage changed her family and, at the same time, challenged American society, media, and culture, raising new questions that came to define our age.

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